Structural unemployment

Structural unemployment technically corresponds to a mismatch between supply and demand for labor (workers). This kind of unemployment is more harmful than seasonal unemployment and frictional unemployment. Furthermore, it does not depend on time but on the labor force absorption capacity of constant capital, whose accumulation promotes an increase in the productivity of the labor force and, contradictorily, promotes greater structural unemployment.[8]​.

On the other hand, the technological factor is an element to be permanently considered in capitalist crises. The merger of the driving companies of the system (which incur a monopoly) and the constant technological progress means that labor is less required in high technology, moving large masses towards informal jobs or jobs of a precarious nature. Two phenomena coincide: overproduction and structural unemployment (with underemployment). Traditional neoliberal responses, in a globalized economy, do not resolve structural unemployment and Keynesian and other structural measures have been proposed, such as the reduction of working time and the implementation of income redistribution models among the underemployed and unemployed (universal basic income, insertion income, social wages or citizen income).[9]​.

Much of technological unemployment,[10]​ due to the replacement of workers with machines, could be considered structural unemployment. Alternatively, technological unemployment could refer to the way in which constant increases in productivity mean that fewer workers are needed to produce the same level of output each year. As Okun's Law indicates, the demand side must grow fast enough to absorb not only the growing workforce, but also the workers laid off by increasing labor productivity.

Seasonal unemployment can be seen as a type of structural unemployment, as it is a type of unemployment that is linked to certain types of jobs, such as agriculture or tourism. For example, amusement park employees experience seasonal unemployment during the winter as fewer people visit during that time. The most frequently cited official unemployment measures remove this type of unemployment from the statistics using “seasonal adjustment” techniques. This translates into substantial, permanent structural unemployment.

Cyclical unemployment

This type of unemployment occurs cyclically—generally coinciding with economic cycles—and its consequences can lead countries with weak institutions to violence and ultimately civil disobedience. In developed countries, the situation can cause changes in state policies until definitively the adoption of a different economic system as a consequence of institutional weakening. In fact, a case of cyclical unemployment was the cause of a global crisis in 1929.

For economists like Arthur Cecil Pigou, unemployment practically occurred only for reasons of the economic cycle, and during the crisis of the 1930s he maintained this and had to face a harsh opponent of his neoclassical economic vision from the British economist at the University of Cambridge John Maynard Keynes.

It is often said of Cecil Pigou that “—unlike Marshall—he was in favor of many of the socialists' objectives, although he opposed other approaches, such as, for example, the existence of public companies. In any case, the impact of his postulates only attracted very limited interest at the time, since as his life went on, his fame was eclipsed by the new doctrines of his colleague John Maynard Keynes, with whom he had more than one controversy.

Frictional unemployment

Frictional unemployment (due to rotation and search) and unemployment due to job mismatch (due to discrepancies between the characteristics of jobs and workers) appear even when the number of jobs coincides with the number of people willing to work.

Frictional unemployment exists because both jobs and workers are heterogeneous, and a mismatch can occur between the characteristics of supply and demand. This mismatch can be related to skills, pay, work time, location, seasonal industries, attitude, taste, and a host of other factors. New entrants (such as graduate students) and return entrants (such as former stay-at-home moms) may also experience a period of frictional unemployment.

Both workers and employers will invest time and effort to find a better hiring or job option. In fact, this is beneficial for the economy as it results in better allocation of resources. However, if the search takes too long and mismatches are too frequent, the economy suffers as no work will be done. Governments will therefore look for ways to reduce unnecessary frictional unemployment through multiple means, including providing education, counselling, training and assistance such as childcare.

Long-term unemployment

A person registered as a job seeker, uninterruptedly, for a period of more than six months, is considered long-term unemployed.

Long-term unemployment has a negative effect on the capacity of the labor market, in the classic model, to automatically restore full employment. In this model, the market naturally tends towards equilibrium without unemployment, because in the presence of unemployment, the unemployed compete with those already employed for available jobs, putting downward pressure on wages and reestablishing equilibrium with a decrease in wages. In long-term unemployment, on the contrary, the market is distorted since this type of unemployed do not compete with employees, because companies do not consider them "eligible", to the extent that they understand that they are not capable of replacing those who are performing the same tasks and, therefore, they do not put downward pressure on wages and do not redirect the labor market towards a new equilibrium.

This distortion of the labor market makes it necessary for the State to intervene, paying special attention to this type of unemployed,[11]​ although efforts in this regard are not always crowned with success.[12]​.

Unemployment rate

Employment and unemployment figures are among the most detailed and comprehensive economic data on a country.

They are obtained periodically, generally through household surveys.

Using the concepts of the 13th International Conference of Labor Statisticians of the ILO, the resident population of a specific age is classified as:.

The unemployment rate is the quotient between the total number of unemployed and the active population, expressed as a percentage. That is, it is not a proportion between the total number of unemployed people and the total population, but rather that of that which is called "economically active."

For its part, the employment rate is calculated as the ratio between the number of people employed and the number of people of working age.

Open unemployment

They are people who did not work during the reference week, actively looked for a job, that is, they took concrete actions to obtain a job, and were available to work immediately. These are the three requirements to be openly unemployed: not having a job, actively looking for work, and being available and willing to work.

This definition, recommended by the ILO at its Thirteenth International Conference of Statisticians in October 1982, was adopted by the countries of the OECD, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, as the official way of measuring the group of developed countries. Likewise, the United States, Canada and Mexico, which make up the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), adopted the ILO recommendations regarding the measurement of open unemployment and harmonized their respective definitions.

Unemployment in starters

They are people who did not work during the reference week, did not actively look for a job because they had previously obtained a job opportunity and are waiting for news from the potential employer or client, and are available to start working.

Some countries classify these workers as unemployed, which is the ILO recommendation, even though they lack one of the three conditions of open unemployment, which is actively seeking employment during the last four weeks. Other countries, however, classify them as occupied.

The volume represented by initiators is usually small and their inclusion or exclusion from open unemployment can affect the unemployment rate by 0.3 to 0.4 percent.

Hidden unemployment

Hidden or disguised unemployment is the unemployment of potential workers that is not reflected in official statistics, due to the way the data is constructed. In many countries, only those who do not have a job but are actively looking for work (and/or qualify for social security benefits) are considered unemployed. Those who have stopped looking for work (and sometimes those in government training programs) are not officially counted among the unemployed, even if they are not employed.

The statistic also does not count the underemployed, that is, people who work fewer hours than they prefer or in a job that does not make good use of their abilities. Additionally, people of working age but currently in full-time education are generally not considered unemployed in government statistics. Traditional native societies that survive by gathering, hunting, herding, and farming in wilderness areas may or may not be counted in unemployment statistics. Official statistics often underestimate unemployment rates due to hidden unemployment.

Contenido

La presencia de un elevado desempleo es un problema tanto económico como social. Una economía con alto desempleo no está utilizando todos los recursos, específicamente mano de obra, disponibles para ella. Dado que está operando por debajo de su frontera de posibilidades de producción, podría tener una mayor producción si toda la fuerza laboral estuviera empleada de manera útil. Como problema social es una fuente de sufrimientos, ya que los trabajadores desempleados tienen que vivir con una renta menor o totalmente sin ella. Durante los períodos de elevado desempleo, las dificultades económicas también afectan a sus emociones y a la vida familiar ya que esto trae consecuencias en la economía doméstica.

Personal

In regions where the unemployed do not have unemployment coverage, the health of these people suffers, with a greater incidence in people with treatments or their relatives, where they must be medicated. Due to scarcity and the choice to allocate the minimum savings either to food or medicine, where there is not enough money for both, problems of malnutrition or nutritional deficiencies appear on the one hand, and also functional deficiencies or aggravations due to the lack of availability of medicines.

For this reason, the oral and dental health of these people is serious, since in certain countries dental care is not covered by insurance, so dental health is aggravated in a certain way.

The combination of unemployment, lack of financial resources, and social responsibilities can cause unemployed workers to take jobs that do not fit their skills or allow them to use their talents. Additionally, it can cause depression, lack of confidence, and amounts of stress. This stress increases when the unemployed face health problems, poverty, and lack of relational support. For employees, unemployment can cause fear of losing a job and stimulate psychological anxiety.[13]​.

Another personal cost of unemployment is its impact on relationships. A 2008 study by Covizzi, examining the relationship between unemployment and divorce, found that the divorce rate is higher for couples when one partner is unemployed.[14] However, a more recent study has found that some couples often stay together in "unhappy" or "unhealthy" marriages when unemployed to cover financial costs.[15] A 2014 study by Van der Meer found that the stigma that comes from being unemployed affects personal well-being, especially for men, who often feel that their masculine identities are threatened by unemployment.[16]​.

Unemployment can also bring personal costs in relation to gender "Gender (social sciences)"). One study found that women are more likely to experience unemployment than men and that they are less likely to move from temporary to permanent positions.[17] However, another study on gender and unemployment found that men are more likely to experience greater stress, depression, and adverse effects of unemployment, largely due to the perceived threat of their role as breadwinners. This study found that men expect to be seen as "less manly" after a job loss than they actually are, and as a result engage in compensatory behaviors, such as financial risk-taking and increased assertiveness.[18]​.

Unemployment costs also vary by age. Young people and the elderly are the two age groups that currently experience the highest unemployment.[19]​.

Social

Economic crises are usually accompanied by worse health due to increased unemployment and poverty. This causes an increase in the differences between the poor and the rich, although not always greater mortality. However, unemployment is usually the root and associated of an increase in deaths by suicide in all countries. An example of this is the case of Spain, where since 2008 suicides have increased to become the third cause of death, after cardiovascular mortality and cancer, surpassing road deaths or traffic accidents between 10 and 24 years of age. The social causes that drive this growth are linked to the general social unrest arising from the feeling of rejection and the execution of policies that damage certain pillars of the welfare state such as the social security system, education, health, culture or the environment.[20]​.

High unemployment can encourage xenophobia and protectionism, as workers fear that foreigners are stealing their jobs.[21] Efforts to preserve existing jobs for native workers include legal barriers against "outsiders" who want jobs, immigration hurdles, and/or tariffs and similar trade barriers against foreign competitors.

The increase in unemployment has traditionally been considered by the public and the media as a factor associated with the electoral defeat of governments. High unemployment can also cause social problems such as crime. If people have less disposable income, crime levels within the economy are likely to increase.[21]​.

La forma en que la política fiscal afecta al empleo es un tema complejo, por lo que es necesario sopesar cuidadosamente los efectos de incentivo y desincentivo que conlleva la intervención del sector público. Por ejemplo, un sistema de prestaciones por desempleo bien diseñado no solo brinda una importante red de protección a la población, sino que, además, permite a los trabajadores dedicar más tiempo a la búsqueda del empleo más productivo. Sin embargo puede al mismo tiempo, prolongar la duración del desempleo, lo que tendría efectos secundarios sobre el potencial de producción de la economía, porque los trabajadores que se encuentran en una situación de desempleo de larga duración experimentan una depreciación de su capital humano.

Las posibles desventajas de las prestaciones sociales se observan con más claridad en sus efectos sobre la oferta de factor trabajo. Con frecuencia se menciona el pago incondicional o ilimitado de prestaciones por desempleo como uno de los principales factores que desincentivan la búsqueda de empleo. Este tipo de prestaciones puede, asimismo, reducir las presiones para reformar un mercado de trabajo ineficiente con altas tasas de paro porque los desempleados disfrutan de esos beneficios. También los sistemas públicos de pensiones tienen efectos significativos sobre la oferta de trabajadores. La escasa penalización de la jubilación anticipada"), o incluso su promoción activa, han reducido dicha oferta. Por otra parte, la perspectiva de jubilación anticipada constituye un desincentivo para que los trabajadores mantengan sus conocimientos profesionales y participen en un proceso de aprendizaje continuo. Además, los incentivos a la jubilación anticipada facilitan la eliminación de mano de obra incluso en circunstancias en que el despido es muy difícil. Como resultado, las empresas que necesiten reducir su plantilla la recortarían en los segmentos de mayor edad, dándose el caso de que estos trabajadores pueden ser precisamente los que más experiencia tengan y no los menos productivos.

Las políticas orientadas al mercado de trabajo, si se diseñan y ponen en práctica adecuadamente, pueden estimular la oferta y la demanda de factor trabajo y, por consiguiente, la tasa de ocupación. Otra de las alternativas es la reducción de beneficios por desempleo. Aunque esto pueda crear incentivos laborales, su manejo como política pública puede resultar más difícil. En un estudio realizado en diferentes países de Europa en 2018, se concluye que hay una probabilidad del 52% de que aquellos que experimenten la reducción encuentren trabajo antes que una persona desempleada con beneficios por mayor número de tiempo.[23]​ Los programas de formación pueden ayudar a mantener y mejorar los conocimientos profesionales, reduciendo los desajustes entre oferta y demanda y el deterioro del capital humano entre los desempleados de larga duración. Otro desafío que se plantea es la reintegración de los grupos difíciles de emplear, como los trabajadores poco cualificados, los parados de larga duración o los trabajadores de más edad.[24]​.

Demand Side Solutions

Increases in demand for labor will move the economy along the demand curve, increasing wages and employment. The demand for labor in an economy is derived from the demand for goods and services. As such, if the demand for goods and services in the economy increases, the demand for labor will increase, increasing employment and wages.

There are many ways to stimulate demand for goods and services. One proposed theory is to increase the wages of the working class (those most likely to spend the increased funds on goods and services, rather than on various types of savings or purchases of basic products) which in economic history has always worked and is explained thanks to the Keynesian multiplier and Okun's Law summarized: growing above 3% per year implies zero employment growth and from that growth half a point of employment grows for each point. Raising wages is believed to be more effective in boosting demand for goods and services than central banking strategies that put the increased supply of money primarily in the hands of wealthy individuals and institutions. Monetarists suggest that increasing the overall money supply will increase demand in the short term. In the long term, the increase in demand will be negated by inflation. An increase in tax expenditures is another strategy to boost aggregate demand.

Providing aid to the unemployed is a strategy used to avoid cuts in the consumption of goods and services that can lead to a vicious cycle of new job losses and further reductions in consumption/demand. Many countries help the unemployed through social welfare programs. These unemployment benefits include unemployment insurance, unemployment compensation, welfare, and subsidies to assist in retraining. The primary goal of these programs is to alleviate short-term hardship and, more importantly, give workers more time to look for a job.

A direct demand-side solution to unemployment is government-funded employment of the able-bodied poor. This was notably implemented in Britain from the turn of the century to 1948 in the institution of the workhouse, which provided jobs for the unemployed in difficult conditions and low wages to discourage their use. A modern alternative is a job guarantee, where the government guarantees work at a living wage.

Temporary measures may include public works programs. Government-funded employment is not widely advocated as a solution to unemployment except in times of crisis; This is attributed to the existence of jobs in the public sector that directly depends on tax revenues from employment in the private sector.

According to classical economic theory, markets reach equilibrium where supply equals demand; Anyone who wants to sell at the market price can do so. Those who do not want to sell at this price do not do so; In the labor market this is classic unemployment. Monetary policy and fiscal policy can be used to increase short-term growth in the economy, increase demand for labor, and decrease unemployment.

Supply side solutions

However, the labor market is not 100% efficient, although it may be more efficient than bureaucracy. Some argue that minimum wages and union activity prevent wages from falling, meaning that many people want to sell their labor at the current price but can't. This assumes that there is perfect competition in the labor market, specifically that no single entity is large enough to affect wage levels and that employees have similar abilities.

Proponents of supply-side policies believe that such policies can solve this by making the labor market more flexible. These include eliminating the minimum wage and reducing the power of unions. Supply-side supporters argue that the reforms increase long-term growth by reducing labor costs. This greater supply of goods and services requires more workers, increasing employment. Supply-side policies, including cutting corporate taxes and reducing regulation, are argued to create jobs, reduce unemployment, and decrease labor's share of national income. Other supply-side policies include education to make workers more attractive to employers.

Europe

Unemployment benefit in Germany is known as unemployment insurance and is part of the German social security system. It was first established in 1927. The plan is administered by the federal labor agency.

All workers, except internal workers, contribute to the system. Since 2006, some previously excluded workers have been able to opt into the system on a voluntary basis.

The system is financed by contributions from employees and employers. Employees pay 1.5% of their gross salary below the social security threshold and employers pay 1.5% contribution on top of the salary paid to the worker. The contribution level was reduced from 3.25% for employees and employers as part of the labor market reforms known as Hartz. Contributions are paid only on earnings up to the social security ceiling (2012: 5600 euros).

The system is largely self-financing, but also receives a subsidy from the State to run the Jobcentres.

Unemployed workers are entitled to: Cost of living known as unemployment benefit. Help finding work

Training

Unemployment benefits are paid to workers who have contributed for at least 12 months prior to losing a job. The subsidy is paid halfway through the period in which the worker has contributed. Claimants receive 60% of their previous take-home pay (capped at the social security ceiling), or 67% for claimants with children. The maximum benefit is therefore 2964 euros (in 2012) In 2011 the Federal Labor Agency had income and expenses of 37.5 million euros.

In Denmark they have chosen to improve public unemployment benefits, eliminating private unemployment compensation, the unemployment figure is 4.1%. In Austria, companies establish an individual fund to complement the benefit.[39]​.

In Greece, salaried workers with more than two years of contributions are entitled to 454 euros (10% more for each minor child).

There are two systems to combat unemployment. The minimum level of support is provided by Kela, a national government agency that pays a means-free unemployment benefit for the maximum number of days, but this can also be extended through labor market subsidies. It also pays a subsidy after determining the financial resources of the applicant for minimum income support, to people who are at the top of their unemployment benefit. The unemployed will also be able to join private funds, which offer an insured service to pay benefits related to previous earnings in the event of unemployment. Regardless of whether benefits are paid by KELA or from an unemployment fund, the unemployed person receives help from e.

, or the Labor and Livelihood Center), a government agency that helps people find employment, and employers find workers. In addition to matching employers with potential employees the agency plays a strategic national level training role for the unemployed to meet current skills gaps and economic forecasts.

France uses a quasi-Ghent system, under which unemployment benefits are distributed by an independent agency (UNEDIC) in which unions and employers' organizations are equally represented. UNEDIC is responsible for three advantages: SE, ACA and ASR. The main ones are scheme requires a minimum of 122 days in the last 24 months and other requirements before claims can be made. Employers pay a contribution on top of the pre-tax income of their employees, which together with the employee contribution, finances the system.

The maximum unemployment benefit is (as of March 2009) 57.4% of €162 per day (ceiling for social security contributions in 2011), or €6,900 per month. Claimants will receive 57.4% of their average daily salary for the last 12 months prior to unemployment, with an average amount of 1,111 euros per month. Unemployment benefits are paid in French tax and other taxes. In 2011, plaintiffs received permission for an average of 291 days.

America

In Mexico, on May 26, 2009, article 191 of the Social Security Law was reformed, which in Section II establishes that workers who are no longer subject to an employment relationship for more than forty-six days and who meet the requirements established in the same section, have the right to request unemployment aid through their Afore (Retirement Fund Administrators) consisting of a partial withdrawal of the resources they have accumulated in the Social Security Subaccount. Retirement, Late Age Unemployment and Old Age.

The evolution of highly concentrated capitalism of wealth uses the Mexican political class to take the model that emerged from the Washington Consensus to a higher stage of neoliberalism. The constitutional reforms approved between September 2012 and August 2014[54]​ and their regulatory laws strengthen the historical alliance between the political class and big capital.

The economic model does not encourage the growth of the productive economy. That explains the deficit in job creation. The phenomenon of unemployment is inherent to the pattern of economic accumulation. Although, officially the unemployment rate in Mexico is less than five percent (INEGI, 2014),[55] that rate does not reflect the reality of national unemployment and underemployment, mainly due to the weight of labor informality.

Structural unemployment

Structural unemployment technically corresponds to a mismatch between supply and demand for labor (workers). This kind of unemployment is more harmful than seasonal unemployment and frictional unemployment. Furthermore, it does not depend on time but on the labor force absorption capacity of constant capital, whose accumulation promotes an increase in the productivity of the labor force and, contradictorily, promotes greater structural unemployment.[8]​.

On the other hand, the technological factor is an element to be permanently considered in capitalist crises. The merger of the driving companies of the system (which incur a monopoly) and the constant technological progress means that labor is less required in high technology, moving large masses towards informal jobs or jobs of a precarious nature. Two phenomena coincide: overproduction and structural unemployment (with underemployment). Traditional neoliberal responses, in a globalized economy, do not resolve structural unemployment and Keynesian and other structural measures have been proposed, such as the reduction of working time and the implementation of income redistribution models among the underemployed and unemployed (universal basic income, insertion income, social wages or citizen income).[9]​.

Much of technological unemployment,[10]​ due to the replacement of workers with machines, could be considered structural unemployment. Alternatively, technological unemployment could refer to the way in which constant increases in productivity mean that fewer workers are needed to produce the same level of output each year. As Okun's Law indicates, the demand side must grow fast enough to absorb not only the growing workforce, but also the workers laid off by increasing labor productivity.

Seasonal unemployment can be seen as a type of structural unemployment, as it is a type of unemployment that is linked to certain types of jobs, such as agriculture or tourism. For example, amusement park employees experience seasonal unemployment during the winter as fewer people visit during that time. The most frequently cited official unemployment measures remove this type of unemployment from the statistics using “seasonal adjustment” techniques. This translates into substantial, permanent structural unemployment.

Cyclical unemployment

This type of unemployment occurs cyclically—generally coinciding with economic cycles—and its consequences can lead countries with weak institutions to violence and ultimately civil disobedience. In developed countries, the situation can cause changes in state policies until definitively the adoption of a different economic system as a consequence of institutional weakening. In fact, a case of cyclical unemployment was the cause of a global crisis in 1929.

For economists like Arthur Cecil Pigou, unemployment practically occurred only for reasons of the economic cycle, and during the crisis of the 1930s he maintained this and had to face a harsh opponent of his neoclassical economic vision from the British economist at the University of Cambridge John Maynard Keynes.

It is often said of Cecil Pigou that “—unlike Marshall—he was in favor of many of the socialists' objectives, although he opposed other approaches, such as, for example, the existence of public companies. In any case, the impact of his postulates only attracted very limited interest at the time, since as his life went on, his fame was eclipsed by the new doctrines of his colleague John Maynard Keynes, with whom he had more than one controversy.

Frictional unemployment

Frictional unemployment (due to rotation and search) and unemployment due to job mismatch (due to discrepancies between the characteristics of jobs and workers) appear even when the number of jobs coincides with the number of people willing to work.

Frictional unemployment exists because both jobs and workers are heterogeneous, and a mismatch can occur between the characteristics of supply and demand. This mismatch can be related to skills, pay, work time, location, seasonal industries, attitude, taste, and a host of other factors. New entrants (such as graduate students) and return entrants (such as former stay-at-home moms) may also experience a period of frictional unemployment.

Both workers and employers will invest time and effort to find a better hiring or job option. In fact, this is beneficial for the economy as it results in better allocation of resources. However, if the search takes too long and mismatches are too frequent, the economy suffers as no work will be done. Governments will therefore look for ways to reduce unnecessary frictional unemployment through multiple means, including providing education, counselling, training and assistance such as childcare.

Long-term unemployment

A person registered as a job seeker, uninterruptedly, for a period of more than six months, is considered long-term unemployed.

Long-term unemployment has a negative effect on the capacity of the labor market, in the classic model, to automatically restore full employment. In this model, the market naturally tends towards equilibrium without unemployment, because in the presence of unemployment, the unemployed compete with those already employed for available jobs, putting downward pressure on wages and reestablishing equilibrium with a decrease in wages. In long-term unemployment, on the contrary, the market is distorted since this type of unemployed do not compete with employees, because companies do not consider them "eligible", to the extent that they understand that they are not capable of replacing those who are performing the same tasks and, therefore, they do not put downward pressure on wages and do not redirect the labor market towards a new equilibrium.

This distortion of the labor market makes it necessary for the State to intervene, paying special attention to this type of unemployed,[11]​ although efforts in this regard are not always crowned with success.[12]​.

Unemployment rate

Employment and unemployment figures are among the most detailed and comprehensive economic data on a country.

They are obtained periodically, generally through household surveys.

Using the concepts of the 13th International Conference of Labor Statisticians of the ILO, the resident population of a specific age is classified as:.

The unemployment rate is the quotient between the total number of unemployed and the active population, expressed as a percentage. That is, it is not a proportion between the total number of unemployed people and the total population, but rather that of that which is called "economically active."

For its part, the employment rate is calculated as the ratio between the number of people employed and the number of people of working age.

Open unemployment

They are people who did not work during the reference week, actively looked for a job, that is, they took concrete actions to obtain a job, and were available to work immediately. These are the three requirements to be openly unemployed: not having a job, actively looking for work, and being available and willing to work.

This definition, recommended by the ILO at its Thirteenth International Conference of Statisticians in October 1982, was adopted by the countries of the OECD, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, as the official way of measuring the group of developed countries. Likewise, the United States, Canada and Mexico, which make up the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), adopted the ILO recommendations regarding the measurement of open unemployment and harmonized their respective definitions.

Unemployment in starters

They are people who did not work during the reference week, did not actively look for a job because they had previously obtained a job opportunity and are waiting for news from the potential employer or client, and are available to start working.

Some countries classify these workers as unemployed, which is the ILO recommendation, even though they lack one of the three conditions of open unemployment, which is actively seeking employment during the last four weeks. Other countries, however, classify them as occupied.

The volume represented by initiators is usually small and their inclusion or exclusion from open unemployment can affect the unemployment rate by 0.3 to 0.4 percent.

Hidden unemployment

Hidden or disguised unemployment is the unemployment of potential workers that is not reflected in official statistics, due to the way the data is constructed. In many countries, only those who do not have a job but are actively looking for work (and/or qualify for social security benefits) are considered unemployed. Those who have stopped looking for work (and sometimes those in government training programs) are not officially counted among the unemployed, even if they are not employed.

The statistic also does not count the underemployed, that is, people who work fewer hours than they prefer or in a job that does not make good use of their abilities. Additionally, people of working age but currently in full-time education are generally not considered unemployed in government statistics. Traditional native societies that survive by gathering, hunting, herding, and farming in wilderness areas may or may not be counted in unemployment statistics. Official statistics often underestimate unemployment rates due to hidden unemployment.

Contenido

La presencia de un elevado desempleo es un problema tanto económico como social. Una economía con alto desempleo no está utilizando todos los recursos, específicamente mano de obra, disponibles para ella. Dado que está operando por debajo de su frontera de posibilidades de producción, podría tener una mayor producción si toda la fuerza laboral estuviera empleada de manera útil. Como problema social es una fuente de sufrimientos, ya que los trabajadores desempleados tienen que vivir con una renta menor o totalmente sin ella. Durante los períodos de elevado desempleo, las dificultades económicas también afectan a sus emociones y a la vida familiar ya que esto trae consecuencias en la economía doméstica.

Personal

In regions where the unemployed do not have unemployment coverage, the health of these people suffers, with a greater incidence in people with treatments or their relatives, where they must be medicated. Due to scarcity and the choice to allocate the minimum savings either to food or medicine, where there is not enough money for both, problems of malnutrition or nutritional deficiencies appear on the one hand, and also functional deficiencies or aggravations due to the lack of availability of medicines.

For this reason, the oral and dental health of these people is serious, since in certain countries dental care is not covered by insurance, so dental health is aggravated in a certain way.

The combination of unemployment, lack of financial resources, and social responsibilities can cause unemployed workers to take jobs that do not fit their skills or allow them to use their talents. Additionally, it can cause depression, lack of confidence, and amounts of stress. This stress increases when the unemployed face health problems, poverty, and lack of relational support. For employees, unemployment can cause fear of losing a job and stimulate psychological anxiety.[13]​.

Another personal cost of unemployment is its impact on relationships. A 2008 study by Covizzi, examining the relationship between unemployment and divorce, found that the divorce rate is higher for couples when one partner is unemployed.[14] However, a more recent study has found that some couples often stay together in "unhappy" or "unhealthy" marriages when unemployed to cover financial costs.[15] A 2014 study by Van der Meer found that the stigma that comes from being unemployed affects personal well-being, especially for men, who often feel that their masculine identities are threatened by unemployment.[16]​.

Unemployment can also bring personal costs in relation to gender "Gender (social sciences)"). One study found that women are more likely to experience unemployment than men and that they are less likely to move from temporary to permanent positions.[17] However, another study on gender and unemployment found that men are more likely to experience greater stress, depression, and adverse effects of unemployment, largely due to the perceived threat of their role as breadwinners. This study found that men expect to be seen as "less manly" after a job loss than they actually are, and as a result engage in compensatory behaviors, such as financial risk-taking and increased assertiveness.[18]​.

Unemployment costs also vary by age. Young people and the elderly are the two age groups that currently experience the highest unemployment.[19]​.

Social

Economic crises are usually accompanied by worse health due to increased unemployment and poverty. This causes an increase in the differences between the poor and the rich, although not always greater mortality. However, unemployment is usually the root and associated of an increase in deaths by suicide in all countries. An example of this is the case of Spain, where since 2008 suicides have increased to become the third cause of death, after cardiovascular mortality and cancer, surpassing road deaths or traffic accidents between 10 and 24 years of age. The social causes that drive this growth are linked to the general social unrest arising from the feeling of rejection and the execution of policies that damage certain pillars of the welfare state such as the social security system, education, health, culture or the environment.[20]​.

High unemployment can encourage xenophobia and protectionism, as workers fear that foreigners are stealing their jobs.[21] Efforts to preserve existing jobs for native workers include legal barriers against "outsiders" who want jobs, immigration hurdles, and/or tariffs and similar trade barriers against foreign competitors.

The increase in unemployment has traditionally been considered by the public and the media as a factor associated with the electoral defeat of governments. High unemployment can also cause social problems such as crime. If people have less disposable income, crime levels within the economy are likely to increase.[21]​.

La forma en que la política fiscal afecta al empleo es un tema complejo, por lo que es necesario sopesar cuidadosamente los efectos de incentivo y desincentivo que conlleva la intervención del sector público. Por ejemplo, un sistema de prestaciones por desempleo bien diseñado no solo brinda una importante red de protección a la población, sino que, además, permite a los trabajadores dedicar más tiempo a la búsqueda del empleo más productivo. Sin embargo puede al mismo tiempo, prolongar la duración del desempleo, lo que tendría efectos secundarios sobre el potencial de producción de la economía, porque los trabajadores que se encuentran en una situación de desempleo de larga duración experimentan una depreciación de su capital humano.

Las posibles desventajas de las prestaciones sociales se observan con más claridad en sus efectos sobre la oferta de factor trabajo. Con frecuencia se menciona el pago incondicional o ilimitado de prestaciones por desempleo como uno de los principales factores que desincentivan la búsqueda de empleo. Este tipo de prestaciones puede, asimismo, reducir las presiones para reformar un mercado de trabajo ineficiente con altas tasas de paro porque los desempleados disfrutan de esos beneficios. También los sistemas públicos de pensiones tienen efectos significativos sobre la oferta de trabajadores. La escasa penalización de la jubilación anticipada"), o incluso su promoción activa, han reducido dicha oferta. Por otra parte, la perspectiva de jubilación anticipada constituye un desincentivo para que los trabajadores mantengan sus conocimientos profesionales y participen en un proceso de aprendizaje continuo. Además, los incentivos a la jubilación anticipada facilitan la eliminación de mano de obra incluso en circunstancias en que el despido es muy difícil. Como resultado, las empresas que necesiten reducir su plantilla la recortarían en los segmentos de mayor edad, dándose el caso de que estos trabajadores pueden ser precisamente los que más experiencia tengan y no los menos productivos.

Las políticas orientadas al mercado de trabajo, si se diseñan y ponen en práctica adecuadamente, pueden estimular la oferta y la demanda de factor trabajo y, por consiguiente, la tasa de ocupación. Otra de las alternativas es la reducción de beneficios por desempleo. Aunque esto pueda crear incentivos laborales, su manejo como política pública puede resultar más difícil. En un estudio realizado en diferentes países de Europa en 2018, se concluye que hay una probabilidad del 52% de que aquellos que experimenten la reducción encuentren trabajo antes que una persona desempleada con beneficios por mayor número de tiempo.[23]​ Los programas de formación pueden ayudar a mantener y mejorar los conocimientos profesionales, reduciendo los desajustes entre oferta y demanda y el deterioro del capital humano entre los desempleados de larga duración. Otro desafío que se plantea es la reintegración de los grupos difíciles de emplear, como los trabajadores poco cualificados, los parados de larga duración o los trabajadores de más edad.[24]​.

Demand Side Solutions

Increases in demand for labor will move the economy along the demand curve, increasing wages and employment. The demand for labor in an economy is derived from the demand for goods and services. As such, if the demand for goods and services in the economy increases, the demand for labor will increase, increasing employment and wages.

There are many ways to stimulate demand for goods and services. One proposed theory is to increase the wages of the working class (those most likely to spend the increased funds on goods and services, rather than on various types of savings or purchases of basic products) which in economic history has always worked and is explained thanks to the Keynesian multiplier and Okun's Law summarized: growing above 3% per year implies zero employment growth and from that growth half a point of employment grows for each point. Raising wages is believed to be more effective in boosting demand for goods and services than central banking strategies that put the increased supply of money primarily in the hands of wealthy individuals and institutions. Monetarists suggest that increasing the overall money supply will increase demand in the short term. In the long term, the increase in demand will be negated by inflation. An increase in tax expenditures is another strategy to boost aggregate demand.

Providing aid to the unemployed is a strategy used to avoid cuts in the consumption of goods and services that can lead to a vicious cycle of new job losses and further reductions in consumption/demand. Many countries help the unemployed through social welfare programs. These unemployment benefits include unemployment insurance, unemployment compensation, welfare, and subsidies to assist in retraining. The primary goal of these programs is to alleviate short-term hardship and, more importantly, give workers more time to look for a job.

A direct demand-side solution to unemployment is government-funded employment of the able-bodied poor. This was notably implemented in Britain from the turn of the century to 1948 in the institution of the workhouse, which provided jobs for the unemployed in difficult conditions and low wages to discourage their use. A modern alternative is a job guarantee, where the government guarantees work at a living wage.

Temporary measures may include public works programs. Government-funded employment is not widely advocated as a solution to unemployment except in times of crisis; This is attributed to the existence of jobs in the public sector that directly depends on tax revenues from employment in the private sector.

According to classical economic theory, markets reach equilibrium where supply equals demand; Anyone who wants to sell at the market price can do so. Those who do not want to sell at this price do not do so; In the labor market this is classic unemployment. Monetary policy and fiscal policy can be used to increase short-term growth in the economy, increase demand for labor, and decrease unemployment.

Supply side solutions

However, the labor market is not 100% efficient, although it may be more efficient than bureaucracy. Some argue that minimum wages and union activity prevent wages from falling, meaning that many people want to sell their labor at the current price but can't. This assumes that there is perfect competition in the labor market, specifically that no single entity is large enough to affect wage levels and that employees have similar abilities.

Proponents of supply-side policies believe that such policies can solve this by making the labor market more flexible. These include eliminating the minimum wage and reducing the power of unions. Supply-side supporters argue that the reforms increase long-term growth by reducing labor costs. This greater supply of goods and services requires more workers, increasing employment. Supply-side policies, including cutting corporate taxes and reducing regulation, are argued to create jobs, reduce unemployment, and decrease labor's share of national income. Other supply-side policies include education to make workers more attractive to employers.

Europe

Unemployment benefit in Germany is known as unemployment insurance and is part of the German social security system. It was first established in 1927. The plan is administered by the federal labor agency.

All workers, except internal workers, contribute to the system. Since 2006, some previously excluded workers have been able to opt into the system on a voluntary basis.

The system is financed by contributions from employees and employers. Employees pay 1.5% of their gross salary below the social security threshold and employers pay 1.5% contribution on top of the salary paid to the worker. The contribution level was reduced from 3.25% for employees and employers as part of the labor market reforms known as Hartz. Contributions are paid only on earnings up to the social security ceiling (2012: 5600 euros).

The system is largely self-financing, but also receives a subsidy from the State to run the Jobcentres.

Unemployed workers are entitled to: Cost of living known as unemployment benefit. Help finding work

Training

Unemployment benefits are paid to workers who have contributed for at least 12 months prior to losing a job. The subsidy is paid halfway through the period in which the worker has contributed. Claimants receive 60% of their previous take-home pay (capped at the social security ceiling), or 67% for claimants with children. The maximum benefit is therefore 2964 euros (in 2012) In 2011 the Federal Labor Agency had income and expenses of 37.5 million euros.

In Denmark they have chosen to improve public unemployment benefits, eliminating private unemployment compensation, the unemployment figure is 4.1%. In Austria, companies establish an individual fund to complement the benefit.[39]​.

In Greece, salaried workers with more than two years of contributions are entitled to 454 euros (10% more for each minor child).

There are two systems to combat unemployment. The minimum level of support is provided by Kela, a national government agency that pays a means-free unemployment benefit for the maximum number of days, but this can also be extended through labor market subsidies. It also pays a subsidy after determining the financial resources of the applicant for minimum income support, to people who are at the top of their unemployment benefit. The unemployed will also be able to join private funds, which offer an insured service to pay benefits related to previous earnings in the event of unemployment. Regardless of whether benefits are paid by KELA or from an unemployment fund, the unemployed person receives help from e.

, or the Labor and Livelihood Center), a government agency that helps people find employment, and employers find workers. In addition to matching employers with potential employees the agency plays a strategic national level training role for the unemployed to meet current skills gaps and economic forecasts.

France uses a quasi-Ghent system, under which unemployment benefits are distributed by an independent agency (UNEDIC) in which unions and employers' organizations are equally represented. UNEDIC is responsible for three advantages: SE, ACA and ASR. The main ones are scheme requires a minimum of 122 days in the last 24 months and other requirements before claims can be made. Employers pay a contribution on top of the pre-tax income of their employees, which together with the employee contribution, finances the system.

The maximum unemployment benefit is (as of March 2009) 57.4% of €162 per day (ceiling for social security contributions in 2011), or €6,900 per month. Claimants will receive 57.4% of their average daily salary for the last 12 months prior to unemployment, with an average amount of 1,111 euros per month. Unemployment benefits are paid in French tax and other taxes. In 2011, plaintiffs received permission for an average of 291 days.

America

In Mexico, on May 26, 2009, article 191 of the Social Security Law was reformed, which in Section II establishes that workers who are no longer subject to an employment relationship for more than forty-six days and who meet the requirements established in the same section, have the right to request unemployment aid through their Afore (Retirement Fund Administrators) consisting of a partial withdrawal of the resources they have accumulated in the Social Security Subaccount. Retirement, Late Age Unemployment and Old Age.

The evolution of highly concentrated capitalism of wealth uses the Mexican political class to take the model that emerged from the Washington Consensus to a higher stage of neoliberalism. The constitutional reforms approved between September 2012 and August 2014[54]​ and their regulatory laws strengthen the historical alliance between the political class and big capital.

The economic model does not encourage the growth of the productive economy. That explains the deficit in job creation. The phenomenon of unemployment is inherent to the pattern of economic accumulation. Although, officially the unemployment rate in Mexico is less than five percent (INEGI, 2014),[55] that rate does not reflect the reality of national unemployment and underemployment, mainly due to the weight of labor informality.